‘An Outstanding Human Being’

Friends and family recall Ted Cain.

Theophilus Edmund Cain, known by a host of friends and family as “Ted,” died Monday, Feb. 9 at home in Potomac. He was 94.

Born in Portage, Prince Edward Island, Canada, Ted moved to the Potomac area following his marriage, June 2002, to the former Eleanor McConihe (Elie) Pisarra. He soon became involved in numerous endeavors including Friends of Great Falls Tavern, where he was a board member and project manager for the construction of the new C&O Canal boat, “Charles F. Mercer.” He was also active with the Potomac Theatre Company where he was not only instrumental in set building, but pitched in regularly to usher and help wherever needed.

Ted moved with his parents, the late Mary McKinnon Cain and Edgar Martin Cain, to the United States in 1925. The family lived in Wayland, Mass. where Ted attended elementary and high schools. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy, November 1942, and served until October 1945 in a Navy Construction Batallion (Seabees). His awards included the Asiatic-Pacific ribbon with four stars.

Relating to his service, a Potomac friend, Austin Kiplinger, remarked, “He was in the Seabees in World War II. He never talked about it much but they did the tough work for the troops. They prepared the way for the allied troops to recapture the territory and return the islands of the South West Pacific.”

Ted also enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary in 1992, volunteering for three years. On the occasion of his resignation from the Coast Guard he received a letter, in part saying, “The principles you have mastered, and your spirit of service also follow you as you leave the Auxiliary.”

Sandwiched between his Navy and Coast Guard services, Ted spent 27 years with the Veterans Administration, first in Brockton, Mass. and later in Washington, D.C., after the family’s move to Silver Spring, where he and his late wife, Martha May Cain, raised five children; Bruce, (Hilton Head, N.C.) Marcia (Greenbelt), Richard and David (Silver Spring) and Marilyn Cain Browning (Columbia, Md.).

Known for his reputation as “Mr. Fixit,” “he never bought anything new because he could always fix what he had,” his wife Elie Cain said.

His ability to fix was apparent in the “Commendation” awarded to Ted upon his retirement in 1980 from the Veteran’s Administration. It read in part, “during his career his performance in positions that included plumber, medical equipment repairer, supervisory electrician, maintenance supervisor and engineering technician have been of the highest caliber. As a result he had been an outstanding ambassador for the administration, demonstrating those qualities that exemplify a superior employee as well as an outstanding human being.”

Ted’s many interests included hours of motoring in his boat on the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay, and building ship models. He was also particularly fond of his relationship with his grandsons Brandon Cain, Philip and Matthew Browning, granddaughter Dawn Cain Reid, and great-grandson, Harlem Cain. Ted’s seven brothers and two sisters preceded him in death.

Among the many fond memories he and Elie shared in their 13 years of marriage is one she readily recalled. They were preparing plans for their honeymoon when she learned Ted did not have U.S. citizenship papers. Apparently, his father, in moving to the States, was rather lax in how and where he filed the documents.

“Ted had to prove his American citizenship to me before we went on our honeymoon. I did not want to have to leave him in Panama,” she said. “Fortunately, former U.S. Congresswoman Connie Morella straightened things out in time,” she said.

In the words of the Veterans Administration “Commendation:” He was “An outstanding human being.”

Services will be held Feb. 28, 11 a.m., at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 10033 River Road, Potomac.